President Bush Announces Methane to Markets Partnership
Statement by the President

Today the United States and several major international partners are
forming the Methane to Markets Partnership, a new and innovative
program to increase energy security, improve environmental quality, and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world. The United States
will commit up to $53 million to the Partnership over the next five
years. To date, Australia, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine, and
the United Kingdom have agreed to participate as founding partners,
along with the United States.

Under the Partnership, members will work in coordination with the
private sector to share and expand the use of technologies to capture
methane emissions that are now wasted in the course of industrial
processes and use them as a new energy source. The important benefits
of this international partnership include improved energy security and
air quality from the use of clean-burning methane as natural gas;
improved coal mine safety; enhanced economic growth; and reduced
greenhouse gas emissions of methane. The Partnership will be led by
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt, working
closely with the Department of State, the Department of Energy, and the
United States Agency for International Development. Administrator
Leavitt will host a ministerial-level meeting of the founding
international partners later this year. I look forward to working
closely with our international partners to achieve the Partnership's
important goals.